The University of Manchester

  • Challenge: Paid social activity to achieve 40-50% total applications across portfolio of dedicated online & blended learning postgraduate courses for one academic cycle.

    Approach: Set up & managed approx. 40 lead generation campaigns through Facebook & Instagram, with web traffic campaigns to support lead generation remarketing. Content was also continually tested to ensure the cost-per-lead saw steady improvement without affecting too much of the key targeting & messaging.

    Results: Majority of campaigns finished with a cost-per-lead either on or below the FB industry benchmark of £6, & the lead generation approach enabled full end-to-end tracking of enquirers, with approx. 60% of applications calculated from paid social as well as accurate reporting of ROI.

  • Challenge: Enable approach for easier reporting for each course within the online & blended learning portfolio.

    Approach: Set up a filtered Google Data Studio report per course, pulling through the top level web performance data from Google Analytics, including user engagement & goal completions, in a consistent yet adaptable layout that was easy to read & understand.

    Results: Dashboards regularly used & referenced for a number of reports, particularly the effectiveness of traffic from certain sources & locations as insight for future marketing strategies. Further developments included on-page video performance, organic performance & GA4 data (see Analytics & Reporting 2).

  • Challenge: Ensure team is prepared for mid-2023 switchover to Google Analytics 4.

    Approach: Identified & set up key conversion events within University GA4 account, which were then mapped into the individual Data Studio reports per course to run concurrently with existing Universal Analytics performance data.

    Results: Reports now in place for top primary metrics, so there will be no downtime or loss of crucial performance data when the switchover occurs. Plus ongoing development for secondary on-site events to further understand user behaviour.

  • Challenge: Ensure USPs are reflected & prominent on web pages for each course within the portfolio.

    Approach: Liaised with marketing peers & academics to identify key course information & USPs, which was then written up & worked into landing page copy on the University website & extended out to third party listings.

    Results: Defined a process for new course copy, along with key messages to be included in marketing materials & digital campaigns. On-site enquiries also saw a year-on-year increase.

  • Challenge: Individual course marketing messages to be more reflective of student needs & motivations for study.

    Approach: Assisted with the running of persona workshops for a number of courses, specifically identifying key criteria for digital campaign targeting & key messaging for campaign content.

    Results: All target audiences & campaign messaging were refreshed per course to monitor the accuracy of each persona, with most seeing an increase in leads generated & on-site user engagement.